Dark Queen: The Cybelline Prophecies

Chapter 50

Cy...Cy...where do you keep running off to?" It was a voice long forgotten, folded into the shadows of time from the darkest recesses of her mine.

She was a little girl again as she ran into the arms of a woman in the green dress. "Grandma!" She hugged the beautiful woman tightly, not wondering why the woman had never aged.

"Oh Cybelline." The woman sighed and kissed the top of the little girl's head, "We tried so hard to keep you from that world." She sighed, "You must be careful, guard your heart well, for nothing is as it seems." With that, the woman began to fade. The little girl snatched for the air, desperate to keep her grandmother but it was all in vain. Soon, everything faded...

Cybelline blinked and opened her eyes again. Above her were a few familiar faces. She sat up and looked around.

She was back in the land of the ring. Except it was much bigger now, the little pond was a lake of crystal clear water. Her sick little tree was a sapling. The little acre of farmland was now a hundred acres. And there were trees at the edge of the space, tall trees that looked hundreds of years old.

She blinked as she sat that the far borders of the land was the familiar fog, except, while it was still dense, was it a little less opaque.

"You're alive!" The fox jumped up in joy. Cybeline coughed, "How long have I been out?"

"A day?" Berin said, "I got hungry eight times" Ceric thought for a moment, "Berin gets hungry every three hours." Cybelline looked at Berin, who embarrassed, sold the rest of his brothers out, "Isthan and Ryion eat even more than I do!"

Cybelline smiled.

"Did you find a way to help them?" A voice asked, Ryion stood there his hands linked tightly together. The boys all looked serious at this question.

Cybelline looked at the new bracelet on her arm, "I might have. I think this at least gives me a way to control my powers."

"You are right."

They heard a voice behind them and turned to look. A lady who seemed nearly invisible stood in front of him, she was more smoke than flesh, her opaque body shimmering and disappearing as she spoke.

"You are a child of many surprises. It has been ages since I have been able to step out of the tower." Her voice was clearer now, though still barely above a whisper. She was stunningly beautiful...there was something about her that was also a little familiar.

Cybelline stood up, "You're the tower spirit, Ophea right?" 

The lady looked at her and smiled, "Yes. I see you are wearing the bracelet. Take good care of it. It once belonged to Queen Titania. It will help hide your powers in the outside world. There are many stones for you to find."

"We can go out and find help!" Ryion grinned happily, it was the first piece of good news he'd heard in days.

Ophea looked at the coffin her eyes widening when she saw the bloody figures inside, she turned to Cybelline, "You are trying to save them? But only one of them is a pure blood fae."

"You have something against human and fae families?" Ceric asked, his brow furrowed.

Ophea looked at him too, "We do not traditionally mix the two, little halfling." Ceric blushed but glared at the woman. There was something in her tone that made him uncomfortable but he didn't know what it was.

Ophea looked at Cybelline once more, "Perhaps the man and woman can still be saved. But the child is too far gone for the skills of human mages." She looked at Cybelline, "But I can help."